FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Graduate School, Institute for Creation Research
Tel: (214) 615-8300; Fax: (214) 615-8299
DALLAS, April 21, 2008 – The Institute for Creation Research Graduate School (ICRGS) is scheduled to appear before the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) on April 23 and 24 regarding its application for a Certificate of Authority to grant degrees in Texas.
Relying on First Amendment principles, and in response to the request by the THECB, the ICRGS has carefully reviewed and revised its online M.S. in Science Education program to meet, and in some areas to exceed, virtually all of the AAAS Project 2061 Benchmarks (in science, mathematics, technology, etc.) and National Science Education Standards.
The ICRGS, having already received two favorable THECB recommendations (from the THECB Site Team and Advisory Committee), is concerned about whether its public viewpoints have or will become the subject of unequal (or otherwise improper) discriminatory treatment in conjunction with the processing of ICRGS’s application. In particular, the ICRGS is especially concerned that any such “discriminatory treatment” may be deemed “unequal” according to federal norms of 14th Amendment-guaranteed Due Process and/or 14th Amendment-guaranteed Equal Protection (or relevant Texas Constitution counterparts).
The ICRGS is concerned that educational politics may unduly influence the processing of ICRGS’s application in a manner that chills free speech, and thus dampens postsecondary education diversity, perhaps facilitating the promotion of a postsecondary education market “monopoly.”
The ICRGS wants to emphasize its institutional respect for the THECB, which obviously has a very challenging regulatory mission, and continuously faces an “ocean” of interactive laws and governing legal standards, not to mention many political pressures to disfavor “unpopular” applicants, many of whom desire that the ICRGS be expelled from the state of Texas.
The ultimate outcome of THECB approval of ICR’s educational program would be the promotion of educational diversity and liberty within the world of private online postsecondary education.
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